The Best of the Month episode is now Patreon-only. Public subscribers get the first 20 minutes or so of the episode as a free preview. Members get to hear the whole episode on Patreon as part of a €5 a month subscription so come join us!

It's the return of our monthly Patreon episode, but this time with a special guest.

Andrea is taking the summer off the podcast and listening parties, so I asked Mo Cultivation's Bekah Molony to join me in enthusing about our favourite music of the past month.

Bekah joins us to talk about Tyler, The Creator's recent Dublin gig, Forbidden Fruit, Lovely Days at Guinness Storehouse and more.

Then we discuss our favourite music from PinkPantheress, Khamari, Baxter Dury, Evan Miles, Mhaol, Billy Woods, Sammy Virji and Skepta, For Those I Love, Katie Phelan, Loyle Carner and Erika De Casier.

Plus some song of the summer contenders and chats about Sinners the film and TV shows we're catching.

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Albums and tracks mentioned

For Those I Love - Of The Sorrows

Sammy Virji; Skepta - Cops & Robbers

billy woods - Golliwog (album)

Khamari - Head in a Jar

Baxter Dury, JGrrey - Allbarone

katie phelan - nothing stays the same

Erika de Casier - Lifetime (album)

Evan Miles - It's On Me

Mhaol - Something Soft (album)

PinkPantheress - Stateside

PinkPantheress - Illegal

Sofia Kourtesis; Daphni - Unidos

Selena Gomez; benny blanco - Bluest Flame

Loyle Carner - all i need

Today's episode is a discussion with writer and journalist Una Mullally about artist boycotts, solidarity, Palestine, Israel, protest, cancellation, capitalism and the music industry.

We talk about how Israel's genocide of the Palestinian people has become a flashpoint of awareness about how modern music festivals work, specifically how private equity which invests in Israel operates in the live music industry.

We chat about why Kneecap's recent actions have drawn so much ire and anger in the US and the UK, leading to the expedited terror charge of Mo Chara on June 18th, and calls (often successful) for cancellation of their shows.

Festivals owned by global events company Superstruct who own 80 festivals and brands like Sonar, Sziget, Boiler Room, Oya, Field Day and Mighty Hoopla have had artists cancel in boycott of Superstruct's owner KKR, the second largest private equity firm in the world, who have documented ties to both weapons manufacturers and Israeli companies developing data centres and advertising real estate on illegally occupied land.

It feels like an unprecedented time for the visibility of protest and boycott by artists in recent years. A generational shift is happening - Artists and DJs are showing moral opposition in this complicity in the face of political inaction. Lines are being drawn.

Ahead of our listening party at the Big Romance, Andrea takes us on the Hero's Journey of Kendrick Lamar's breakthrough 2012 second album good kid, m.A.A.d city.

Subtitled A Short Film, this cinematic rap masterpiece was a huge mainstream success, and crowned Kendrick as the voice of modern hip-hop (Dr. Dre literally appears to do so on the coronation track 'Compton') and it's narrative storytelling tells the story of a 17-year-old Lamar on a quest for a girl before being sidetracked by homie peer pressure and the more dangerous elements of his surrounding landscape.

It features the songs 'Bitch Dont' Kill My Vibe', 'Money Trees', 'Backseat Freestyle', and the accidental frat anthem 'Swimming Pools (Drank)'.

We revisit this modern rap masterpiece, Kendrick's first of many.